Stories enable us to build personality and create a connection with consumers. But can we actually tell a story on social media? Is it possible to narrate a story with social media posts that are supposed to be short and sweet?

It turns out there are many ways to use social media for storytelling!

In this post, I’d love to share 20 actionable ways to use social media for storytelling.

Ready to dive in?

Navigating this article

To make it easier to navigate this article, the 20 ideas are grouped according to the various social media platforms. If you prefer, feel free to jump to your favorite section by using the quick links below:

Facebook

1. Write your entire story in a Facebook post

National Public Radio (NPR) studied over 3,000 of their Facebook link posts and found that shorter posts (those under 120 characters) had higher click-through rates than longer posts (those above 280 characters). But, that’s not the full picture!

Longer posts had more “Other Clicks” such as clicks to “See More”, which appears on long Facebook posts. This could mean that people got everything they wanted from the post itself without having to click on the link. That’s great if you are telling a story rather than trying to drive traffic to another site.

(NPR calculates adjusted click-through rate by adding link clicks and other clicks together and dividing that sum by post impression.)

The Humans of New York Facebook Page is a great case study for this. Most of the posts on the Facebook Page are long and require people to click on the “See More” button to read the full posts. While it feels like a hassle to read such Facebook posts, they actually receive incredibly engagement. I believe it is because they tell beautiful, captivating stories.

An idea to try:

If you want your Facebook fans to read stories about your customers or your company (instead of driving them to another site), it might be better to write longer Facebook posts. Instead of summarizing the story or just having the title, tell the full story.

2. Create a Facebook photo album

A photo tells a thousand words; many photos tell many thousand words. 😉

Creating a Facebook photo album is another great way to share a story with your followers. This tends to be perfect for events where you would have many photos taken to share. Here’s a bonus: I believe Facebook re-shares the whole album on the News Feed whenever you add new photos to it (e.g. Buffer added 3 new photos to the album: Buffer Meetups.). This allows you to share the album with potentially more people.

An idea to try:

Whenever you organize an event, invite your colleagues and the event attendees to snap as many photos as they like and send them to you. Create a Facebook photo album with the best 10, 20, or 30 photos.

Tough Mudder told a great story — many stories, actually — with its new promotional video for Tough Mudder 2017. It’s a montage of interviews with people who have attempted Tough Mudder on how the race have changed them for the better.

An idea to try:

Collect video testimonies from your company’s biggest fans or messages from your colleagues and compile them into a video montage to share on Facebook. For example, we did a Facebook video for Thanksgiving last year.

Candace Payne’s (as known as Chewbacca Mom) Facebook Live video was the most watched Facebook Live in 2016 (or perhaps ever). While it isn’t a branded content, it has a nice three-act structure (a model often used in screenwriting) we can learn from:

Setup – Introduction of the video where she describes her trip to Kohl’s

Confrontation – Build-up as she unboxes the Chewbacca mask

Resolution – Climax where she laughs uncontrollably

An idea to try:

It can be tough to go onto a Facebook live without preparation. Try creating a storyline using the three-act structure for the live video. This can be a live video where you share tips, a behind-the-scene video, or a question-and-answer session.

5. Sequence your Facebook ads

I learned about this amazing storytelling method on Social Media Examiner. It is such a clever way to tell a story and get results!

Refinery29, a fashion, style, and beauty website, partnered with Adaptly and Facebook to test the effectiveness of sequenced messaging of Facebook ads (or storytelling through Facebook ads). One of the test groups was shown three Facebook ads in a narrative sequence — introduction to the brand, an article from the brand, a call-to-action for an email subscription) — while the other test group was shown three Facebook ads with different creatives but same email subscription call-to-action.

They found that the test group which was told a story through the ads converted at the highest rate.

An idea to try:

If Facebook advertising is part of your social media marketing strategy, give this sequencing method a try. Introduce your brand with the first ad, share something about your brand with the second ad, and have a call-to-action on the third ad. Here’s how to sequence your Facebook ads.

Alternatively, you can use Facebook or Instagram carousel ads to create a similar effect. You can create carousel ads by selecting the “Multiple images in one ad” option when you are creating your ad.

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Instagram

6. Create a narrative with your Instagram caption

While a high-quality image is important for an Instagram post, a captivating caption can help to complete the story by sharing a narrative.

Airbnb is one of my favorite storytellers on Instagram. This is because they not only use beautiful photos but also tell a short story through the caption of each photo.

With such an image and caption, I’m so intrigued to read the story! If you are, too, here’s the story.

An idea to try:

For your next Instagram post, share a short story about the photo with more than three sentences. It might be helpful to note that Instagram captions are limited to 2,200 characters, and after three lines of text the captions become truncated with an ellipsis.

7. Tell a visual story with your Instagram profile

A creative way to share on Instagram is to use several posts to create a huge image on your Instagram profile. When done well, it can look very appealing.

Herschel Supply Co. has been recently using this method of visual storytelling on Instagram to promote their newest collection of bags.

An idea to try:

If it fits your Instagram style or if you want to experiment with new ideas on Instagram, create an image on your profile with three, six, or nine images. A tool to help you with that is Instagrids. If you prefer to use Photoshop or Sketch, the recommended dimensions for each square grid are 1080 pixels by 1080 pixels.

Three-grid image: 1080 pixels in height by 3,240 pixels in width.

Six-grid image: 2,160 pixels in height by 3,240 pixels in width.

Nine-grid image: 3,240 pixels in height by 3,240 pixels in width.

8. Curate user-generated content on Instagram

This strategy has helped us grow our Instagram account from 4,000 to 20,000 followers over the past year. (And it is a great way to get to know people from our community!)

We curate user-generated content by sharing short stories from our community through photos on our Instagram profile. Another way to curate user-generated content is to create a branded hashtag for a story that you want to tell. TOMS does this with its annual One Day #WithoutShoes campaign, and in 2016, this hashtag campaign generated 27,435 Instagram posts from its customers.

An idea to try:

Encourage your Instagram followers to post a photo on Instagram with your branded hashtag and promise to re-post a few of the best ones or send the person with the best photo a small gift.

9. Create a short video or boomerang on Instagram

Many companies have been using Instagram videos to tell short stories. (Here are 17 inspiring examples from HubSpot.)

Unlike Facebook videos that can be 120 minutes long, Instagram videos can only be up to 60 seconds long. But constraints can help breed creativity. Great stories can be told in seconds. One of my recent favorite video stories is from Nike.

(Update: Nike might have removed the original post since we wrote this post and made a similar video with mainly words and a bit of background video.)

An idea to try:

Create a short 30-second or 60-second video, sharing the history of your company. The video doesn’t need to have stunning footage to work. Nike’s video told a powerful visual story purely with words.

10. Use a series of Instagram stories

Even though there’s no limit to the number of Instagram stories you can post a day, we found that 10 stories a day are a good amount of us. With 10 stories, you can share quite a bit of content. Here’s a recent example from us:

An idea to try:

Turn one of your recent blog posts into a series of Instagram stories. You can use a mix of photos and videos of yourself talking or create graphics using a graphic creator such as Canva. The recommended dimensions for an Instagram story is 1080 pixels in width and 1920 pixels in height.

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Twitter

11. Tweet a storm

Can’t fit your story into 140 characters or one tweet? Try using more tweets.

Tweetstorm is the practice of sharing a train of thought that is longer than 140 characters through a series of tweets. They are like mini-essays. Usually, the tweets will start or end with a number to indicate the sequence of the tweets.

To string your tweets together, simply reply to your previous tweet. Apps like Tweetstorm and Storm It make it even easier to tweetstorm.

An idea to try:

If you have written a listicle recently, try sharing the key points of the listicle through a Tweetstorm. Remember to include the numbering in your tweets.

12. Create a Twitter Moment

According to Twitter, Moments is a new and dynamic way for people to tell their stories. They’re like tweetstorms but more beautiful and interactive. This creative format of telling a story could be a way to drive clicks and engagement.

13. Attach multiple photos to a tweet

Research by Twitter has shown that tweets with photos get 313% more engagement. While most tweets with images have only one image per tweet, attaching multiple images to a tweet is a great way to tell a story. It helps to give more details to your story or allows you to tell a longer story.

Here’s a tweet with multiple photos by The New York Times during the recent Super Bowl. Having more than one photo tells people who saw the tweet more about the game than just having one photo.

15. Spread your own hashtag

But you don’t always have to make your branded hashtag go viral. It can be meaningful enough when your customers and community understand the purpose of your hashtag and use it in their tweets, too.

At Buffer, we started using #BufferLove in our tweets last year to show our appreciation to people who shared our tweets, mentioned us, or gave us a shoutout. Gradually, our community began using it, too!

An idea to try:

Create a hashtag for your community, use it often, and encourage your community to use it whenever appropriate. #BufferCommunity is another hashtag we use often.

16. Tap into a trending hashtag

Instead of using a hashtag to curate stories about your company or community, you can also tap into a trending hashtag to share your brand story. It doesn’t always have to be a viral hashtag (though, it might be great). Most importantly, the hashtag has to be relevant and appropriate for your brand.

YouTube

18. Create a YouTube channel or playlist

Among all the different types of content (videos, social media posts, news articles, etc.), videos are the type of content that most people consume thoroughly, according to a research by HubSpot. Personally, I think it’s the best format for storytelling. Videos tend to capture my attention much more than articles.

Airbnb has a YouTube playlist, Airbnb Stories, which contains remarkable stories from the Airbnb community. In the playlist, there are videos created by both Airbnb and its community. Here’s a story of an Airbnb host, Michael:

An idea to try:

Interview some of your customers and share their stories and experiences with your company in a video. It doesn’t have to be a long video, one to two minutes long is great.
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An idea to try:

20. Create a SlideShare presentation

Over 70 million people visit SlideShare to learn new things, making it one of the top 100 most-visited websites in the world. SlideShare presentation decks make it easy for people to consume information as flipping through a deck and absorbing the information is faster than reading through pages of text.

An idea to try:

Over to You

There are countless ways of telling stories on social media, and I hope these 20 ideas have inspired you to experiment with creative ways to tell your brand story.

As I’m sure you are much more creative than me, I’d love to hear how you have been telling your brand stories on social media. If you are up for it, feel free to comment below and share the link to a social media posts where you told a story. Thanks!

Your brain is foggy. Judging by the volume of cat videos you consumed this morning, it’s fair to say you’re distracted. Maybe even a tad irritable.

And it’s all because of a very real condition:

You have a bad case of CMF (Content Marketing Fatigue).

It happens to the best of us, from the tenacious startup to the big guys with loads of resources!

Consumers expect a lot from companies nowadays. It’s no longer just about slapping up a website and saying, “Hey, we promise we’re legit.”

You have to prove it.

One of the best ways to demonstrate your relevance and expertise is by publishing thoughtful and valuable content to educate, inspire, and entertain your target audience.

The problem is, it’s a lot of work!

So, how do you avoid CMF?

The answer: Get smarter with content creation.

Yes, there are fantabulous ways, like working with guest bloggers, to keep the original ideas and perspectives flowin’. But even so, when it comes to content creation, you need to get the most bang for your buck (time is money, right?).

Try upcycling: The simple process of repurposing old content into something new and improved.

You don’t need to resurrect them all! The first step is just to figure out which posts are worthwhile.

Ask yourself these questions:

Who are you trying to reach?

What topics are most relevant to this audience?

Which posts got loads of love in the form of visits, social shares, likes, comments, and backlinks?

Does its relevance hold up over time? Is it evergreen content?

Is there more to be said, or more value to add?

There will be more than one front-runner, but start with a single blog post, or a series of related posts, and brainstorm ways to transform that content into a fresh format that will attract a new segment of your audience.

To get your creative juices flowing, here are ten content ideas to consider:

1. E-books

Okay, this format seems intimidating, but if you think about it, e-books are really just like blog posts with a little lipstick. Take a valuable post, or a series of high-quality, related posts, and bundle ‘em up in a fancy schmancy, styled-up booklet.

Focus on a friendly format that’s easy to scan. Eye-catching visual elements like call-outs, photos, graphics, and quotes will help your cause.

Use a graphic designer or go it alone. You can build your e-book in PowerPoint and export it as a PDF, or experiment with tools like iBooks Author or Scrivener.

2. Online courses

All that expertise isn’t doing any good bottled up in your brain. You should be educating your readers, so why not formalize it a bit?

Converting your blog posts into individual e-course modules can be an effective place to start with premium content. Also, by upping your content caliber, you can collect currency in the form of email addresses in exchange for access.

Spruce up your course with quizzes, awards, and incentives for module completion and referrals. Remember to focus on educating – you can mention your products if they’re particularly relevant, but shoehorning in tons of awkward and inappropriate sales pitches is so 1991.

3. Video

You knew this one was coming! If you haven’t heard, video is hotter than a nine-brained octopus on board game night (trust us, it’s hot). With a fancy video creation machine (aka smartphone) in our pockets, we have no excuse to ignore video.

Harvest your posts for video-worthy opportunities. Test the waters with a few of these tried and true formats:

4. Infographics

These modern day hieroglyphics simplify data and complicated subjects, and give readers a needed break from words, words, and more words! (Plus, they’re shared and liked up to 3x more than other types of visual content. Cha-ching!)

Infographics are no longer as labor intensive as they used to be, either – if you don’t have a designer of your own, try experimenting with easy, breezy tools like Canva, Infogr.am, Piktochart, and Venngage.

5. Templates and checklists

Actionable advice is central to a successful blog post. How many times have you read something and thought, “Yes ma’am, I am doing this…as soon as I have time, which will be never.”

Help hold your readers accountable with handy-dandy action items in the form of PDF or Excel checklists, trackers, templates, and honey-do lists. Plus, these resources make killer evergreen content that you can distribute again and again over social media (yup, Edgar can help with this) or embed across your site.

6. Webinars

These virtual online seminars come in more shapes and sizes than a tray of calamari (trust us, chicken is a far safer option). If you’re a newbie to the webinar, consider prerecording it until you’re more confident with a live environment – more on that in this guide.

You are the teacher in this scenario, so pick your style based on the needs of your audience.

Presentation: Don’t get us started on the upcycle possibilities with slides! (Because we’re talking about that in a second – keep reading!)

Demo: It’s not only helpful, but makes another stellar option for the camera-shy.

7. SlideShare

With 70 million users, this LinkedIn sibling is the ultimate double whammy – one part fresh format (think YouTube for slideshows), one part distribution channel. Blog posts packed with visuals, lists, quotes, charts, and actionable, bullet-worthy takeaways are the best candidates for a SlideShare adaptation.

To get the most out of this platform:

Integrate images, video, audio narration, and even infographics

Use keywords in your title and keyword section for SEO

Entice readers with a catchy headline

Backlink to valuable posts on your site

Include a CTA

8. New blog posts

Sometimes half the battle in maintaining a blog is coming up with inventive ideas – but old blog posts make a great launch pad for inspiration.

Comb through your archives with these questions in mind:

Are there related topics to cover in more depth?

Are there outdated articles to resurrect? Keep the original URL to avoid getting dinged for duplicate content, but refresh the article with recent stats, visuals, and best practices.

Is there a tutorial or demo you could create? Publish the follow-up interview as text AND video!

Who can you interview for a fresh perspective on the original post?

What’s in the comments and questions section? This is a gold mine for topic ideas!

9. Podcasts

If your readers are anything like us, they dig podcasts because they can do all sorts of other things while listening to them. Funnel through your blog posts for podcast topic ideas that are a catalyst for debate, fresh perspective, and thought leadership.

Admittedly, podcasting isn’t the most turnkey option, BUT the return on investment can make it all worthwhile. The key is to commit. Be consistent and dedicated to driving value and promoting the heck out of it.

Don’t forget to post your show notes as a full transcript or summary on your website (high-five SEO!).

10. Visuals

Stockpile all the social media fodder you can handle by creating bite-sized pieces of visual content based on the work you’ve already done on your blog. No heavy lifting required, just a keen eye for the social nuggets your audience will gobble up – or better yet, share.

Build a repository of personality-filled visuals that you can tee up for distribution on your social channels.

You probably have ideas already, but here’s some eye-candy to explore:

Dental problems are one of the most important issues that we face in today’s scenario. The basic reason for this is that we are very busy in our professional lives, and we keep on munching high calorie and processes foods that are detrimental for our oral health.

In our day to day life we all face some type of dental issues. For maintaining good overall health, we need to be aware of dental health hazards that can hamper our working routine. Some common dental problems are as follows:
• Gum Disease: It is also known as periodontal disease. It is caused by bacterial infection. General symptoms of gum infection are red, swollen gums. It may increase the chances of diabetes, heart disease and strokes. You can prevent gum disease by regular brushing and flossing.

• Bad Breath: It is the very common dental problem which is also known as halitosis. It can be caused by gum disease, cavities, bacterial infection in tongue, oral cancer and dry mouth problem. You can prevent bad breath by using sugar free gums, mouthwash, regular brushing your teeth and tongue cleaning.

• Cavity: Cavities are the tiny holes in your teeth that can grow deeper and cause tooth decay. Main cause for cavity is plaque which dissolve enamel and can lead to decay of your teeth. It can be prevented by brushing and flossing twice or thrice a day, regular dental checkups, avoiding sugary foods and drinks. Treatment of cavity is filling, but always prevention is better than cure.

• Mouth Sores: Common types of mouth sores are canker sores, fever blister, cold sores, ulcers and thrush. Sores in your mouth make you feel uncomfortable. If it remains more than two weeks, then you need to visit your dentist and get complete diagnosis from him.

• Oral Cancer: It is a serious oral health hazard. It affects mouth, throat and lips. If it is diagnosed at early stage, then it can be curable. The most important point is to never avoid the signals you receive from your mouth like swollen gums, bad breath etc.

• Tooth Sensitivity: When you eat or drink something cold, hot or sweet and feel pain or discomfort in your teeth, you are suffering from tooth sensitivity. You can prevent by avoiding too cold or too hot food or drink and by using fluoridated dental products.

You can easily prevent some of these dental problems by brushing, flossing and regular dental checkups. Proper dental care helps you to improve your overall health. But always keep in mind the simple fact that your mouth is not a machine, and if you keep on filling harmful ingredients there, one day it will become saturated and give rise to countless dental issues.

In our day to day life, we all do things that are highly correlated with our health. Some habits that we adopt are very helpful for living a healthy and happy life. Brushing, flossing and regular dental checkups are some good habits for healthy teeth but without even realizing, we practice some bad habits that can harm our dental health.

These habits do not show immediate results but can become a cause of concern if overlooked continuously. Some common habits that are unhealthy and can wreck our teeth are as follows:

 Chewing ice cubes can crack your teeth.
 Any kind of oral piercing can damage your gums and cause infection and sores in mouth.
 Using your teeth as a tool to open bottle caps and other plastic packaging can be harmful for your teeth. It can affect your dental work and crack your teeth.
 Soda is acidic and sugary. Drinking soda daily can be harmful for your teeth it can cause tooth decay.
 Nail biting is a bad habit that can crack your teeth and split enamel. Regularly nail biting can move your teeth out of place.
 Brushing roughly and immediately after eating can be harmful for your teeth. Brushing improperly and vigorously can damage your teeth and gums and cause sensitivity.
 Eating starchy junk food and snacks produce less saliva and can cause many dental problems.
 Chewing pen or pencil can also crack your teeth.
 Excessive tooth grinding habit can cause dental problems.
 Smoking and chewing tobacco is very harmful for your dental health. It can cause gum diseases, oral cancer and other serious health issues.
 Playing sports without mouth guard can damage your teeth while playing.

These are some bad habits that can ruin our dental health. Stay away from these habits and improve longevity of teeth. One must always visit for regular dental checkups for avoiding oral problems.

In today’s scenario, we all are facing some health issues that hamper our daily working routine and make us feel uncomfortable. For a healthy lifestyle, it is necessary to keep entire body healthy including dental health.

Poor dental care can lead to many oral diseases like tooth sensitivity, gum diseases, and bad breath. In order to avoid oral health hazards, some good habits have to be keep in mind. Following are the some effective ways for preventing dental problems:

 Brushing your teeth twice a day- It is very important for preventing dental problems. Use soft bristle brush for brushing your teeth and spend two minutes for every brushing.

 Use proper Toothpaste- Toothpaste that contains fluorides, harden the enamel and prevent tooth decay. So use fluoridated toothpaste for brushing.

 Floss daily- You should do flossing preferably after lunch and dinner as it removes food particles from in between the teeth.

 Rinse your mouth properly- Rinsing is very important aspect of your oral health. Water suppresses the effect of acidic and sugary food.

 Avoid use of tobacco- Tobacco can increase the risk of oral cancer and other gum disease. So try and avoid smoking in case you want to get relieved form dental problems.

 Regular dental checkup- It is very important for ensuring a good dental health. Visit your dentist at least twice or thrice a year for cleaning and oral examination.

 Use an alcohol-free mouthwash- They are easily available in the market and help you from getting prone to various diseases.

These are some useful tips for maintaining good oral hygiene. One can achieve good oral health by applying these dental care habits in his or her daily routine. It helps you to prevent dental problems and makes your teeth, tongue and gums healthy.

A famous saying states “You are what you eat”. It is very true that to be fit and healthy you need to eat good food. Whatever we eat or drink affects our body and immune system that can cause many health hazards.

Eating habits affect our dental health to a great extent. Poor eating habits have a negative impact on our teeth and gums. Many dental problems such as cavities and gum diseases are a result of poor nutrition and bad quality food.

When we eat sugary foods, drink, candies etc. then bacteria come into contact with the sugar in our mouth and produce acids that are harmful for our teeth and causes tooth decay. Lack of proper nutrition in our diet can infect our teeth and there is a high risk of gum diseases and teeth loss.

It is very important to establish a healthy diet habit to prevent cavity, gum disease and any other oral health issues. Some foods that can help you to promote good oral health are:

We must increase the intake of vegetables, fruits and nutritious snacks in our diet. As vegetables and fruits are not only low in sugar but also have high content of water and fiber in it. We should also avoid sticky food as they remain in contact with tooth for a long time and creates cavities.

A well balanced diet helps to keep our teeth and gums healthy. Drink plenty of water, brush and floss daily, regular dental checkups and maintain good eating habits are the keys for a perfect oral health. Eat healthy in order to live a healthy lifestyle.

Good oral health is very important for a healthy life style. There is a strong co-relation between oral health and overall health. At every stage of life, oral health is essential for improving self-esteem and self-confidence.

Taking care of dental health is an important aspect of your health. Neglecting dental care habits can cause various oral health issues. Poor oral health can improve the risk of occurrence of the following problems:

 A long term infection in gums can be harmful for your heart. Some periodontal bacteria can block blood vessels and improve the risk of coronary heart diseases.
 Tooth loss can affect bones and tissues around your teeth that increases the risk of stroke.
 Body’s metabolism can be affected by gum disease that increase the blood sugar level and can cause diabetes.
 Periodontal disease can create complications in pregnancy.
 Poor dental health affects blood pressure and bone health that can also lead to kidney failure.
 There is a link between mental health and gum disease. Stress, anxiety, depression etc. can increase the amount of cortisol hormone which further increase the risk of periodontal disease.

Periodontal disease is most common oral health disease. The signs of gum diseases can be gum bleeding or swollen gums. This can result in destruction of gum tissue and bone. For maintaining oral health one must visit the dentist at least once in a month for a regular checkup.

Good oral health not only makes your smile beautiful and healthy but also helps you to make your teeth stronger and it also effect on your health too. You do not feel shy to be a part of social gatherings if you have sound oral health.

By taking care of your dental health, you can reduce the consequences of many serious health issues. Maintaining a great oral health doesn’t take a lot of effort. Good dental care habits including brushing, flossing daily and regular visit to your dentist can prevent you from getting prone to dental health problems and helps you to improve overall physical and mental health.